Recommended Reading
from Bruce
PAUL KRUGMAN: Mission Not Accomplished (nytimes.com)
Stocks are up. Ben Bernanke says that the recession is over. And I sense a growing willingness among movers and shakers to declare "Mission Accomplished" when it comes to fighting the slump. It's time, I keep hearing, to shift our focus from economic stimulus to the budget deficit.
RICHARD ROEPER: Shocking video of fatal beating hard to watch (suntimes.com)
Some of the toughest people I know, including hardened city journalists, have said they just can't watch it.
roger ebert's journal: The anger of the festering fringe
I've had these thoughts for some time, but have been reluctant to express them. Now so many others have voiced them that it's pointless to remain silent. I am frightened by the climate of insane anti-Obama hatred in this country. I'm not referring to traditional conservatives or Republicans. They're part of the process. I'm speaking of the lunatic fringe, the frothers, the extremist rabble who are sweeping up the ignorant and credulous into a bewildering and fearsome tide of reckless rhetoric.
Ted Rall: BUILD STUFF. THEN LEAVE
In Afghanistan, Pull Out Soldiers and Send in Engineers.
Roger Ebert: Foreclosed? Advice you can use from the helpful Michael Moore
Whether or not you agree with Michael Moore, he has one piece of invaluable advice in his new film, "Capitalism: A Love Story." If a bank forecloses on your home, ask them to prove their ownership by producing a copy of the mortgage.
Roger Ebert's Journal: The blogs of my blog
One of my favoring pastimes, especially when I should be doing something else, is moseying around the blogs of my readers. You may have noticed that when the name of a poster is displayed in blue, that means it's a link -- usually to the author's blog, although you might be surprised. Assembled here is a distinctive readership of interesting people, not least because I am vigilant about never posting idiotic or perfunctory comments. A certain civil tone is (usually) maintained, avoiding the plague of flame wars.
Garrison Keillor: Stuck in the shallows
Every so often, sitting down to your Cheerios, you open The New York Times to the crossword puzzle and find clues such as "___ Van Winkle" and "___ of 1812" and "Buried in Grant's Tomb" and you finish the thing in five minutes flat feeling brilliant and unappreciated, some sort of national treasure, and then you spend an hour searching for your car keys and that brings you down smartly to Earth. For some reason, you've parked your glasses in the top drawer of the bureau next to the pewter soup spoons and the car keys in an earthenware vase atop the clavichord.
"Bicycle Diaries" by David Byrne: A review by Damian Kilby
Wherever David Byrne travels, on tour as a musician or pursuing other creative interests, he brings along his folding bicycle. Byrne, best known as the leader of the iconic new wave band Talking Heads, is an avid urban cyclist. Bicycling -- meandering, exploring, just getting from place to place -- has become his "panoramic window" on life around the globe.
Spandau Ballet's reunion: Once more with girdles (guardian.co.uk)
With 10 top 10 hits, Spandau Ballet were the epitome of 80s pop. After much bitterness and a court case, the band are reunited again, writes Caroline Sullivan.
Robert Abele: 'Zombieland' nearly scared off Woody Harrelson (latimes.com)
The actor couldn't believe his agent would dare to pitch him a flick with such a ridiculous title. And then he read the script.
Rene Rodriguez: With 'Zombieland,' the undead shuffle into the mainstream with big names, laughs (McClatchy Newspapers)
When Woody Harrelson received a copy of the screenplay for "Zombieland" last year, he stuffed it into his duffel bag of unread scripts and promptly forgot about it.
Kerry Fox: 'I can't hang around' (guardian.co.uk)
She made her name playing strong, singular women. Kerry Fox talks about fame, sex scenes - and why she has to get up at 4am to learn her lines, writes Kira Cochrane.
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Link from RJ
Hi there
Been a little slow of late, but am hoping to get back in full swing soon! Here is one I hope you will enjoy!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cooler and quite pleasant.
Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie was tickled to get four nominations for the upcoming Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, but the already thoroughly decorated artist says that in this case, it's really, truly not about the awards.
"It's not just an acknowledgment, but it's more a connector into something I just prayed for, years and years ago: a real aboriginal music industry," Sainte-Marie told The Canadian Press on Friday in a telephone interview from her Montreal hotel room.
"To see the award shows celebrating that with lots and lots of aboriginal people is a dream come true for me."
When she started making music - roughly 50 years ago - Sainte-Marie says there were "no First Nations people, native American people, aboriginal people in the music industry."
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Red Book
Carl Jung
The Red Book, an intricate 16-year record of Carl Jung's journey into his unconscious that has never been seen publicly, is going on display in an exhibit at a New York museum that coincides with publication of the volume, rendered in the Swiss psychoanalyst's elaborate calligraphy and richly hued paintings.
The tome's existence had always been known, but scholars and the public have never seen it. After Jung's death in 1961, it was left in his Zurich home until it was moved to a bank safe deposit box sometime in the late 1980s.
Jung's descendants resisted historians' requests over the years to have the Red Book published. But after two partial typed draft manuscripts surfaced, they allowed a London historian of psychology, Sonu Shamdasani, who first approached them in 1997, to translate the work from the original.
The Red Book - equal parts extraordinary book of science and work of art - is an exquisite illuminated manuscript comparable to the artistry of the Book of Kells. It is written on heavy-gauge paper in Jung's elegant calligraphy and filled with his dreamlike and painstaking tempera paintings of mythological figures and symbolic graphic forms in deep red, teal, blue and green brushstrokes.
Carl Jung
19th Anniversary Of German Unification
Berlin
Gigantic puppets starred at celebrations marking the 19th anniversary of German unification in Berlin Saturday as tens of thousands watched the mechanical marionettes on their walk through the city.
At the capital's landmark Brandenburg Gate, for 45 years the border between communist east and capitalist west, a five-metre (16-foot) little girl giant from the east reunited with a 15-metre giant "relative" from the west as on-lookers cheered.
The two puppets -- part of a show designed by artists and technicians of French troupe Royal de Luxe -- hugged and kissed after a walkabout of several kilometres (miles) through the once divided city.
On Sunday they are to symbolically return tens of thousands of letters once intercepted by former East Germany's Stasi secret police to people watching their procession through the city.
Berlin
Photo Exhibit Opens
Oil
The first exhibit of 56 large-scale color landscapes from Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky chronicling the impact of oil made its debut Saturday at Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art - less than a block from the White House. The show, chronicling the world's predominant energy source, can't help carrying a political zing.
"Edward Burtynsky: Oil," opens at the privately funded museum as Congress is struggling with a climate bill that could include a "cap and trade" system to reduce greenhouse gases. Critics say it could drive up energy costs.
The show, underwritten by Canada's Scotiabank, will be on view at the Corcoran through December, then will travel to Canada and other destinations through 2012. Corcoran officials also expect a smaller version to travel in Europe.
Burtynsky spent 12 years exploring the subject, following past projects on mines, quarries and farming. The images are divided thematically to show how oil is extracted from the earth and how it drives transportation and development. It ends with a frightening thought - the end of oil.
Some of the most striking images depict the abandoned, rusting oil fields of Azerbaijan in 2006, where the earth has been tapped dry.
Oil
$500,000 Pay Off
Roman Polanski
Film director Roman Polanski agreed to pay his sexual assault victim $500,000 to settle a lawsuit 15 years after he fled the United States, according to court documents
Polanski and the victim, Samantha Geimer, reached the deal in October 1993. The terms of the settlement were confidential, but the amount was disclosed in court documents because of a two-year struggle to get Polanski to pay.
Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse and a judge sent him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. However, he was released after 42 days by an evaluator who deemed him mentally sound and unlikely to offend again.
The judge responded by saying he was going to send Polanski back to jail for the remainder of the 90 days and that afterward he would ask Polanski to agree to a "voluntary deportation." Polanski then fled the country the night before he was scheduled to be sentenced, Feb. 1, 1978.
Roman Polanski
Hung Jury
Kirsten Dunst
A jury deadlocked Friday on the most serious charge against a mechanic who said he was misled into taking part in the theft of Kirsten Dunst's $2,000 handbag during a Manhattan movie shoot.
James Jimenez was convicted of a misdemeanor count of criminal trespass. But jurors deadlocked on burglary and other charges in the case, which included testimony from the "Spider-Man" star and her one-time co-star Simon Pegg.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the 35-year-old would be retried on the burglary charge in the August 2007 theft. It came while the 2008 comedy "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" was being filmed at the SoHo Grand Hotel.
For now, he remains free on $50,000 bail at least until his Nov. 13 sentencing date on the criminal trespass count. It could send Jimenez, 35, to jail for up to a year. A burglary conviction carries as much as 15 years in prison.
Kirsten Dunst
Taping Peeper Busted
Michael David Barrett
A Chicago-area man arrested at O'Hare airport who is accused of taping surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was due to appear in federal court late Saturday morning, authorities said.
Michael David Barrett was arrested Friday night as he arrived on a flight from Buffalo, N.Y., the FBI said. He faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ and posting the videos online, the FBI said in a statement.
Andrews thanked FBI agents and federal prosecutors for their work on the arrest and said she hoped the case will eventually help others who have been similarly victimized.
The charges against Barrett were filed in Los Angeles, where TMZ is based and where Andrews first became aware of the videos. She is identified in the federal complaint as E.A.
Michael David Barrett
Message In A Bottle
Ann Hernandez
A bottle with a message written by a woman who tossed it into the sea in 2003 off Cape Ann in Massachusetts was found 3,000 miles across the Atlantic off the coast of France. Michel and Daniele Onesime said they were going fishing last month from the port at St. Gilles Croix de Vie when they found the bottle in the water.
The message was from Ann Hernandez, a lighthouse keeper on Thacher Island off the coast of Rockport, where she had thrown bottles with notes into the water every October on her birthday since 1991.
In the note, Hernandez identified herself and urged any finders to send a card to her year-round home in Park Forest, Ill.
The Onesimes tried to do that, but learned Hernandez died unexpectedly last year at the age of 61 from complications from surgery.
Ann Hernandez
1,000th Climate Change Signer
Mesa, AZ
Mesa, Ariz., is the 1,000th city to sign the U.S. Conference of Mayors' climate change agreement.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels brought the idea to the conference in 2005. Nickels is now president of the mayor's group - members are meeting in Seattle this week to talk about climate protection and the recession.
The agreement is an effort to meet the international Kyoto Protocols for reducing greenhouse gases. The mayors who have signed on represent more than 86 million Americans.
Nickels will lead a delegation of U.S. mayors to a global climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
Mesa, AZ
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